President Donald Trump: The Thread

[Quin]

Has Trump's admin extended any legislation to thwart the medias powers/rights? Serious question. I haven't been following closely.

 

He hasn't (yet?), but by stoking these flames it's definitely creating a dangerous atmosphere. Journalists have been threatened at his rallies. I had students threatened last semester at the GOP watch party.

[GoSox05]

Okay. I am less concerned with the testimonial stuff and more concerned with palpable action.

 

Kinda reminds of this Spongebob episode with people freaking out about stuff Trump hasn't even done yet:

.

 

The media and the treatment of journalists is a very important issue to me too and especially since the media has basically lost all of its journalistic roots. I was very much upset with President Obama's treatment of the media. Whether you're on the left or the right President Obama went after journalists on both sides. If you're on the left - Glenn Greenwald got pushed out to Brazil and they held his boyfriend captive for a while. Laura Poitras got pushed out to Germany. Michael Hastings was investigated by the FBI up until the day he died. If you're on the right, Andrew Breitbart and his coroner ended up dead shortly after he attacked Obama. Dnesh Dzsousa (spelling? I don't know him much) was subjected to specific enforcement of campaign law because of his opposition to Pres. Obama.

 

President Obama used the Espionage Act more than all other Presidents combined.

 

The Committee to Protect Journalists called Pres. Obama's administration "the most aggressive" since Nixon's admin.

 

If you don't like Trump's rhetoric, that's fine, and I would never defend it anyways. But the fact that you're preemptively attacking for Trump for something he hasn't even done is a bit confusing. Especially when all of my complaints towards Pres. Obama's admin against the press were disputed heavily around here. If we're all being honest, if Trump and Sessions actually wanted to restrict the media (which remains to be seen), Pres. Obama's administration has laid the groundwork for them. Hell, for the sake of continuity, if it was their plan to restrict the media, the best course of action would be to adopt the Obama administration's policy from the go.

 

 

This is a lot of conspiracy theory stuff.

 

[GoSox05]

If you don't have a real response why even respond?

 

 

Cause it's conspiracy theory nonsense.

 

Greenwald has said many times that he lives in Brazil because his husband lives there. He's not in exile.

 

Breitbart had a history of heart problems and drug/alcohol abuse. No one killed him.

 

Dinesh D'Souza is a crook and that's why he went to jail.

Edited February 20, 2017 by GoSox05

[brett05]

He hasn't (yet?), but by stoking these flames it's definitely creating a dangerous atmosphere. Journalists have been threatened at his rallies. I had students threatened last semester at the GOP watch party.

Probably done by the paid liberals

[GoSox05]

Probably done by the paid liberals

 

It was actually me. George Soros pays me 10 million dollars to pretend to be a Trump supporter and harass journalists.

[Quin]

Probably done by the paid liberals

 

Nah. By older Republicans that went to Christian colleges like you.

[Quin]

<!--quoteo(post=3484166:date=Feb 20, 2017 -> 12:01 PM:name=raBBit)-->

<!--quotec-->Okay. I am less concerned with the testimonial stuff and more concerned with palpable action.

 

Kinda reminds of this Spongebob episode with people freaking out about stuff Trump hasn't even done yet:

.

 

The media and the treatment of journalists is a very important issue to me too and especially since the media has basically lost all of its journalistic roots. I was very much upset with President Obama's treatment of the media. Whether you're on the left or the right President Obama went after journalists on both sides. If you're on the left - Glenn Greenwald got pushed out to Brazil and they held his boyfriend captive for a while. Laura Poitras got pushed out to Germany. Michael Hastings was investigated by the FBI up until the day he died. If you're on the right, Andrew Breitbart and his coroner ended up dead shortly after he attacked Obama. Dnesh Dzsousa (spelling? I don't know him much) was subjected to specific enforcement of campaign law because of his opposition to Pres. Obama.

 

President Obama used the Espionage Act more than all other Presidents combined.

 

The Committee to Protect Journalists called Pres. Obama's administration "the most aggressive" since Nixon's admin.

 

If you don't like Trump's rhetoric, that's fine, and I would never defend it anyways. But the fact that you're preemptively attacking for Trump for something he hasn't even done is a bit confusing. Especially when all of my complaints towards Pres. Obama's admin against the press were disputed heavily around here. If we're all being honest, if Trump and Sessions actually wanted to restrict the media (which remains to be seen), Pres. Obama's administration has laid the groundwork for them. Hell, for the sake of continuity, if it was their plan to restrict the media, the best course of action would be to adopt the Obama administration's policy from the go.

 

I'm attacking him for calling the "media" the enemy of the people and constantly undermining us. Every single organization, other than Fox News. It's led to a number of death threats for run-of-the-mill reporters.

 

Journalism hasn't lost its roots. The pundits on the networks, maybe. But the Post, Times and even Teen Vogue are on a roll journalistically.

 

Poitras is in NYC and is a star in the documentary world right now. She's come to Mizzou twice in the past two years. I'm a fan of Poitras.

 

Greenwald, possibly. But we've debated this in the past. Greenwald is also someone that has possibly been "losing his roots" so that he can just attack any establishment, to the point where he'll go on Tucker Carlson and circlejerk their hate of the "mainstream media."

 

Breitbart, that's a conspiracy theory.

 

Obama wasn't great to journalists, that's true, but he never called us enemies of the people and tried to get the public against us.

 

Hell, Fox News is preferring Obama to Trump in this case.

 

[GoSox05]

I notice you didn't broach any of my direct complaints towards the Obama's administration activity. Safe to assume you agree there?

Greenwald speaking on his rights and Obama's administration threats being the hold up to him returning to the US.

 

I never said anyone killed Breitbart. Breitbart had no drugs in his system when he died. Not sure of the relevance of the drugs/alcohol you brought up other than to malign his character.

 

Yeah, he's a crook for donating to a friend in a way that was outside of the technical campaign law. Perhaps he should have done his research and had his friend speak at an event and just paid her charity the money. He didn't do that so he was held to the law. It's just curious that this is the only time we hear of a mainstream figure being guilty of campaign contribution fraud. D'Souza was a victim of selective enforcement. Anybody who is free of any stringent ideological affiliations can see that. I don't like the guy either, though I respect his immigration and perspective on his immigration, but I am able to see past his politics to see that he was selectively held to the law in a crony capitalism system that is infested with bulls*** financing.

 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/m...-dinesh-dsouza/

"The senators quoted Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, a liberal who said, “I can’t help but think that [Mr. D'Souza‘s] politics have something to do with it… . It smacks of selective prosecution.”"

 

I wasn't criticizing that stuff about Obama. That is true and is probably going to be 10x worse under Trump.

 

I just think you can criticize things that administrations are doing to the media/journalists without going down the conspiracy theory road.

 

 

 

 

 

[Soxbadger]

Probably done by the paid liberals

 

I do it for the lulz.

[Soxbadger]

You couldn't substantiate the claim that it was conspiratorial but I totally agree otherwise. I don't know if you partake in it but kind of funny to see someone nitpick into something being conspiracy when this board regularly partakes on that stuff. For instance, Trump is going to be 10x worse on the treatment of journalists than the worst president ever in that regard. I'd love to see you see substantiate that one.

 

There is a difference between a prediction and a conspiracy theory.

 

A prediction is guessing at what is going to happen: "I think the Sox will win 162 games this year."

 

A conspiracy theory tries to explain something that has happened in the past: "I think that Donald Trump paid the Indians to lose game 7."

[GoSox05]

Yeah, it would be crazy to predict that the guy who calls the media "the enemy of the American people" will probably be bad towards journalism.

 

 

[brett05]

It was actually me. George Soros pays me 10 million dollars to pretend to be a Trump supporter and harass journalists.

Can I bum $5?

[brett05]

Nah. By older Republicans that went to Christian colleges like you.

Pretty arrogant and ignorant as well as false by you. However, this is not as rare as a president getting shot, or the sun appearing daily.

[BigSqwert]

When Trump stated that he could shoot a random person on 5th Ave and still get support, he's talking about people like brett. Funny that some of you still interact with him.

[Quin]

When Trump stated that he could shoot a random person on 5th Ave and still get support, he's talking about people like brett. Funny that some of you still interact with him.

 

I could get receipts, but nah.

[caulfield12]

Trump aides covering up or lying/obfuscating about his amount of time spent golfing...

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/20/politics/don...ency/index.html

Edited February 20, 2017 by caulfield12

[Reddy]

Probably done by the paid liberals

Do you seriously think I'm getting paid to go to the dozen or so rallies I've attended? Like, seriously?

[caulfield12]

There's no evidence that the Obama administration was anything but caught in a predicament by Snowden and the reporters who dumped all those documents...clearly the government wasn't going to reward them for potentially putting many lives at risk. There's certainly a stronger argument that unfiltered document dump was more dangerous than granting visas to Muslims originating in the seven ban countries.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Greenwald

 

Regarding civil liberties during the Obama presidency, he elaborated on his conception of change when he said, "I think the only means of true political change will come from people working outside of that [two-party electoral] system to undermine it, and subvert it, and weaken it, and destroy it; not try to work within it to change it."[73] He did, however, raise money for Russ Feingold's 2010 Senate re-election bid,[74] Bill Halter's 2010 primary challenge to Democratic Sen. Blanche Lincoln,[75] as well as several Congressional candidates in 2012 described as "unique".[76]

 

Greenwald is critical of Israel's foreign policy and influence on U.S. politics,[77] a stance for which he has in turn been the subject of criticism,[78][79] which successively elicited some criticism towards those authors.[80]

 

According to Greenwald, the emergence of ISIS is a direct consequence of the Iraq War and NATO-led military intervention in Libya.[81][82][83] Greenwald has criticized U.S. and U.K. involvement in Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.[84] He wrote in October 2016: "The atrocities committed by the Saudis would have been impossible without their steadfast, aggressive support."[85]

 

 

Alan Dershowitz is far from a spokesman for liberals or Obama. Note that quote came from the Washington Times, which is fake news just like the NY Post or NY Observer.

 

 

From Breitbart's Wikipedia entry

 

On the night of February 29, 2012, Breitbart collapsed suddenly while walking in Brentwood. He was rushed to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead just after midnight.[46][47] He was 43 years old. An autopsy by the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office showed that he had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, with focal coronary atherosclerosis,[48] and died of heart failure.[49] He was buried in the Jewish plot at the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery. His grave is marked with the inscription "Herein lies a giant."

 

Unproven conspiracy theories arose about his death.[50][51][52] The toxicology report showed, "No prescription or illicit drugs were detected. The blood alcohol was .04%. No significant trauma was present and foul play is not suspected."[49] Bill Whittle, a personal friend of Breitbart, had said that Breitbart had a "serious heart attack" just months before his death.[53]

 

 

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-poli...N0HI23820140923

Conspiracy Theory #3

 

D'Souza, a frequent critic of U.S. President Barack Obama, admitted in May to illegally reimbursing two "straw donors" who donated $10,000 each to the unsuccessful 2012 U.S. Senate campaign in New York of Wendy Long, a Republican he had known since attending Dartmouth College in the early 1980s.

 

"It was a crazy idea, it was a bad idea," D'Souza told Berman before being sentenced. "I regret breaking the law."

 

Prosecutors had sought a 10-to 16-month prison sentence, rejecting defense arguments that D'Souza was "ashamed and contrite" about his crime and deserved probation with community service.

 

 

D'Souza, 53, was (instead) ordered by U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan to live in a center (like a nicer halfway house), which would allow him to leave during non-residential hours for employment, for the first eight months of a five-year probationary period.

 

Berman also ordered D'Souza to perform one day of community service a week during probation, undergo weekly therapy and pay a $30,000 fine.

 

 

 

 

Where's the smoke, let alone a fire?

Edited February 21, 2017 by caulfield12

[Steve9347]

There is a difference between a prediction and a conspiracy theory.

 

I think that Donald Trump paid the Indians to lose game 7.

Now it all makes sense.

[RockRaines]

Do you seriously think I'm getting paid to go to the dozen or so rallies I've attended? Like, seriously?

Whatever the Fuhrer says is true.

[caulfield12]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/21/politics/don...port/index.html

 

An interesting, albeit scary read. These Republicans are now even MORE for Trump than when they voted for him in November.

 

 

 

When it came time to vote, Republicans were as loyal to their party as Democrats were to theirs. And now, they are standing solidly behind Trump, even as his approval rating is the lowest of any new president in modern times. Trump's 40% approval rating is 21 points below average for a president finishing his first month in office, while his 87% approval rating among Republicans is second only to that of George W. Bush among all GOP presidents elected in the last 65 years, Gallup reported Friday.

 

 

[southsider2k5]

Do you seriously think I'm getting paid to go to the dozen or so rallies I've attended? Like, seriously?

 

Not to validate what the blind followers are saying here, but I would make a distinction here. I think there is a lot of organic anger that had led to an ease of organization of events like this. I do fully believe that the organization and planning of these events isn't random and that there is a paid work being done at the top levels to keep people angry and engaged through the elections.

[caulfield12]

Not to validate what the blind followers are saying here, but I would make a distinction here. I think there is a lot of organic anger that had led to an ease of organization of events like this. I do fully believe that the organization and planning of these events isn't random and that there is a paid work being done at the top levels to keep people angry and engaged through the elections.

 

And how is that any different from the Tea Party or Newt Gingrich's Contract with America in 1994-95? The Grover Norquist Effect as well?

 

Were those all organic or simply manifestations of Koch Industries operatives masquerading as populist movements but professionally planned and funded?

 

The closest you're going to get to that is Occupy Wall Street...because it never had a leadership structure or even an agreed-upon set of policy goals. And a fair amount of the Republican "outrage" has been funded by the insurance/medical/Big Pharma industry exerting pressure behind-the-scenes.

 

60% of the country being roundly against a president is unprecedented. Yet the polarization of across the board level of support from that 40% is nearly unprecedented as well, especially in "peacetime."

Edited February 21, 2017 by caulfield12

[Reddy]

Not to validate what the blind followers are saying here, but I would make a distinction here. I think there is a lot of organic anger that had led to an ease of organization of events like this. I do fully believe that the organization and planning of these events isn't random and that there is a paid work being done at the top levels to keep people angry and engaged through the elections.

 

I mean... of course. That happens on both sides, and always has. MoveOn, OurRevolution, Shaun King, Michael Moore, Women's March, etc, etc, etc, etc of course they're making money - this is their job. But that's not what the rabid Trumpsters are saying. They think every one of us is being paid to rally, because that's what their leaders are leading them to believe.

[southsider2k5]

I mean... of course. That happens on both sides, and always has. MoveOn, OurRevolution, Shaun King, Michael Moore, Women's March, etc, etc, etc, etc of course they're making money - this is their job. But that's not what the rabid Trumpsters are saying. They think every one of us is being paid to rally, because that's what their leaders are leading them to believe.

 

Eh, it is a common tactic of both sides of the aisle to take a thought with a basis in fact, but turn it into something completely false. I can't tell you how many things that are being attributed to EVERYONE WHO VOTED FOR TRUMP since the election.